Makerspace and EAP at OAIE conference

It was such a pleasure partnering with Brock’s ESL Services to participate in the OAIE Conference, June 18th – 20th, 2017. This annual conference was filled with great workshops that explored the challenges and celebrated the accomplishments experienced by International Education all over Ontario. The OAIE conference welcomes educators, administrators, and recruiters who work in EAP programming.

As a representative of the Library Makerspace, I really wanted to share some of the collaborations with the Brock IELP students, and highlight benefits of the project and inquiry based learning approaches used in our makerspace. The presentation was well-received from the approximately 30 participants in attendance. For many, this was the first opportunity to hear about Maker spaces and culture in an academic setting. We received a lot of great feedback about our presentation and people were excited about the possibilities for future experiential learning projects they could incorporate within their institutions.

One of the conference themes was interdepartmental and community collaboration. I believe that our proposal showcased a unique collaboration that speaks to the needs of the 21st century learner. One of the benefits in presenting to a diverse group, was it gave us further insight into how to better design collaborative programming for the future.

EAP & Makerspace Projects: A Unique Collaboration

Our interactive presentation introduced four novel collaborations especially designed for international students as they transition into undergraduate studies. The focus was on best practices that can be adopted by participants looking to develop projects that appeal to creativity and add learner engagement, or to departments looking to establish connections across campus.

PRESENTERS: James Papple, Academic Coordinator, Brock University / Tabitha Lewis, IT Support Technician/Makerspace Coordinator, Brock University